Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. A former aide to Margaret Thatcher, Gardiner has served as a foreign policy adviser to two US presidential campaigns. He appears frequently on American and British television, including Fox News Channel, BBC, and Fox Business Network.

Cameron worships Obama, but Barack's win won't help Dave in 2015

David Cameron made no secret of his desire to see Barack Obama win the presidential election during his visit to Washington back in March. As I noted at the time, he delivered a ringing endorsement of his US counterpart during the state dinner. It was a risky strategy, which upset a lot of Republicans, and would have caused complications for the White House-Downing Street relationship had Obama actually lost. It also sent a clear signal that the British Conservative Party was ditching its long-standing traditional support for its American sister party, and was now siding openly with the Democrats.

This was a serious mistake, significantly harming the image of British conservatism in the eyes of US conservatives, and straining future relations between the Republican Party and the UK Conservative Party. There are fortunately several members of the British Cabinet, including Iain Duncan Smith, William Hague and Michael Gove, who retain close ties to the American Right, but Downing Street itself has done little to cultivate friends on this side of the Atlantic who aren’t on the American Left. This is remarkably short-sighted, considering that Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives, hold 30 Governorships across the country (compared to 19 for the Democrats), and are still a huge force to be reckoned with.

It is therefore no surprise that "cheers were echoing" though Downing Street upon the news that Barack Obama was staying on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And there is already widespread speculation that the prime minister will use Mitt Romney’s defeat to move the Conservatives further to the political centre, while reining in the Thatcherite/Eurosceptic wing of the party.

A steady narrative is building that Cameron needs to ditch ideology and traditional Tory positions for a more liberal approach that will supposedly win over “moderate” or undecided voters, who are increasingly being wooed by Labour. I think this would be a mistake for Cameron, not only consigning his party to defeat in 2015, but seriously damaging its brand as well.

A Conservative Party that doesn’t actually stand for conservative principles – low taxes, the defence of national sovereignty, strong national defence, a tough law and order approach and robust immigration policies, for example (in other words a Labour lite), is in the long run doomed to failure and irrelevance. In America the Republicans will eventually return to the White House, not by throwing conservative policies overboard but by sticking to core principles and advancing an agenda that most Americans still embrace – a belief in individual liberty, limited government and economic freedom.

It is hard to see what Cameron has to gain from adopting Obama’s approach – class warfare, big government solutions, tax the rich etc. This is the language of the Left, already widely used by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats, and put into practice over the channel in much of Europe.

The reality is that as much as Cameron likes to worship Obama, the Democrats’ victory is only going to help Ed Miliband and the Labour Party. It is simply delusional to think that victory for the most left-wing president in American history will benefit the Conservative Party, the party of Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. And if Miliband wins, you can be sure US Democrats will embrace him with open arms, just as they warmly welcomed the election of Francois Hollande in France.

Cameron is far better off sticking to conservative policies that Middle England actually wants – like holding a referendum on EU membership, cutting personal and corporate taxes, reducing the size of the welfare state, and getting government off people’s backs. Barack Obama doesn’t believe in any of these things, and shouldn’t be seen as a role model for British Conservatives.